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pattyblom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Medical content, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Violence, Addiction, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty
infinitefandomstrash's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved it, your honor <3
Graphic: Medical content, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Gun violence, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Slavery, Animal death, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
livruther's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
2) She mentions being homophobic bc of the Bible, but she doesn’t mention all the sexism in the Bible. I felt like she should have mentioned that.
3) Felicity honestly didn’t seem as upset as I felt like she should be when she found out that her hero was a POS. He was basically her whole life’s inspiration and she was just like, a little bit mad that he actually sucked.
Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Drug use, Gore, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse
ree_the_owlgirl's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Violence and Addiction
harmonique's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Blood, Racism, Classism, Colonisation, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Animal cruelty
aisling872's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Sexism
anime917's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Sexism
crufts's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
Sexism vs gender equality is a crucial theme in this story following Felicity Montague. However, Felicity talks about sexism in broad statements that aren't drawn from her experiences. This makes the novel start to sound like the author's essay on gender equality, instead of a novel about Felicity Montague that has gender equality as a theme.
For example, Felicity visits a medical school to request admission as a student. As she walks through the vaulted halls, she see wall after wall full of men's portraits - not a single woman in sight.
And she thinks along these lines: "I look up and see picture after picture of men who have spent generations barring women from joining their halls."
But why does logical, rational Felicity make this conclusion about the men in these portraits?
It may well make sense that Felicity comes to this conclusion. She lives in an extremely sexist setting, after all!
But to the reader, who does not live in Felicity's setting, it seems like a weirdly abrupt and broad conclusion to make. WHY did Felicity look at a wall of portraits and determine that the subjects of the portraits have spent generations barring women from joining their halls?
Did Felicity read about these men beforehand and hear troubling news about their discriminatory practices? Did she hear about some other woman who had applied to the school and been rejected or ridiculed? Did she simply find it suspicious that a school which claims to welcome applicants fairly doesn't have a single woman's portrait amongst its walls of heroes? What specific experience did she have?
I think the most effective choice would be to have Felicity think back to her many, many rejected applications (which is why she's finally conceding to make an appointment under false pretenses). She could look up at those portraits looming down at her, and imagine the portraits of the many women who (like her) would have been rejected from the school. That's real and specific, and so it emphasizes the real adversity Felicity faces.
If Felicity's conclusions aren't tied to specific experiences she's had, they begin to sound like overly-blunt moralizing (see Anvilicious). It's like the author is trying to talk directly to the reader from her modern perspective looking back at the sexism of the 1700s, instead of Felicity (a specific human being with her own specific experiences) telling her story to the reader.
This problem continues once Felicity gets into the meeting with a panel of all-male med-school staff. She comments that she has trouble looking into the "hawk-black eyes of a man who has never been denied anything in his life".
Again, how does she come to this conclusion? Felicity knows nothing about this person except that he's a male medical school administrator. For all she knows, he was born into the depths of poverty and worked his way up. He might be living with a chronic illness which prompted a desperate interest in medicine. He might be working hard to financially support a charitable cause. Or perhaps none of these things are true - but how does Felicity know that?
As before, Felicity's conclusion would be more effective if there was more explanation behind it. Perhaps she noticed a gold pin on this guy's lapel that indicated him to be the son of a famous trust fund family or something like that. Even better if she were to look around the table and see that all of these men are wearing heavy silver watches, have their wigs done up to the nines, are wearing expensive-looking suits, etc etc. Show the privilege you're trying to assign to these guys, don't tell it like you're writing an essay.
I also found the language flowery at times, e.g.:
"Miss Montague," he says, his tone the auditory equivalent of looking down his nose, which he is also doing, as he's seated higher than me.
"Miss Montague," he says, looking down his nose at me.
However, I'll note that this flowery language was already a minor problem in The Gentleman's Guide and wasn't something new in this novel.
On the positive side, it was fun to see more of the friendship between Felicity and Percy. In The Gentleman's Guide we always saw them quietly talking to themselves at the back of the scene while self-centered Monty failed to notice. Felicity was also the first to understand how Percy wanted his epilepsy to be treated, and we see this in her matter-of-fact discussion of the practical concerns. Also, the cameos of Percy and Monty going about their everyday life was faithful to the first novel; their characters seemed consistent.
Although I wasn't a fan of The Lady's Guide, I still enjoy Mackenzi Lee's writing style overall and I'll definitely check out her following book (The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks).
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
Minor: Medical content
The setting is rife with sexism, and gender equality is a running theme in the book. This is a type of discrimination I generally can't stand reading about (maybe because it hits too close to home), but I enjoyed the Gentleman's Guide and wanted to give the sequel/companion novel a chance.laurajeangrace's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Drug use, Slavery, Death of parent, and Drug abuse